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The breakfast and post-dinner dayparts have proved to be successful business extensions for many quick serves the last few years.

Now, some operators are testing another daypart: brunch.

Florida-based fast casual Salsa Fiesta added a brunch offering to its fresh, made-to-order Mexican menu to open the door for additional weekend sales. The brunch menu, served from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on weekends, includes items like an enchilada omelet, gluten-free waffles, huevos rancheros, and “hangover tortilla soup,” complete with a fried egg on top.

So far, the brunch addition has been a big success at the concept’s two stores. Olivo says weekend sales are up about 5 percent since adding brunch three months ago, and sales continue to climb each Saturday and Sunday.

The new menu is playing well with Salsa Fiesta’s regulars, as well as pulling in new customers and families who enjoy a post-church brunch on Sundays.

“It’s an experience for the whole family,” Olivo says. “For that time, they have the possibility of enjoying and sharing a little bit with their family members.”

Salsa Fiesta’s weekend sales are up about 5 percent since adding brunch three months ago, and sales continue to climb each Saturday and Sunday.

Consumer demand for breakfast and brunch is a key driver for First Watch, a multistate chain of 103 restaurants. First Watch stores are open from 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. daily and always offer a menu with breakfast, brunch, and lunch options. Breakfast is king, accounting for about 50 percent of weekday dining. Restaurants also do about half of their business on Saturday and Sunday.

First Watch has filled a unique niche, says CMO Chris Tomasso. Its menu offers something for everyone, with heavy traditional breakfast and brunch items alongside several lighter dishes. That, along with the overall growth in the morning daypart and the rise of the value-minded consumer, has given the brand a distinct positioning, he says.

Tomasso says the brunch market is getting more crowded. But for now, First Watch sees chef-driven neighborhood restaurants as its biggest competition—not quick-service or fast-casual chains.

“We have seen more and more restaurants start offering brunch,” he says. “Basically, what they’re trying to do is utilize their physical space during more hours, and brunch or late-night seem to be the two areas they’re focusing on. And I think there will be more restaurants continue to open for that daypart.”

But while breakfast has become an increasingly popular offering at quick-service and fast-casual restaurants, not everyone is convinced brunch will be as successful.

“I think brunch becomes a difficult occasion for [quick-service] operators to effectively address because this is typically a sit-down event for consumers,” says Maeve Webster, director of food industry market research firm Datassential. “It’s almost exclusively a weekend event, which wouldn’t be very effective for a [quick serve] to offer. As a result, we see [operators] going the more traditional breakfast daypart route and offering it throughout the week.”

Webster says the penetration of fast feeders offering breakfast has risen steadily since 2006, while the growth of brunch menu items hasn’t moved at all in the segment.

“At the beginning, it was a little challenging because all our line cooks and everybody needed to adapt to a completely new menu,” Olivo says. “But after a while—three or four weeks—they felt more comfortable.”

So comfortable, in fact, that owners are now considering adding a weekday breakfast menu aimed at drumming up more sales with the business crowd.

Tomasso says established operators will face a range of other challenges when looking to add a new daypart like brunch. Chief among them, he says, is that brands will have to build recognition of the new daypart among their consumer base.

“It’s a brand thing and trying to get your customers to look at you as something other than [how] they’ve known you,” Tomasso says. “Sometimes a consumer has a hard time comprehending that and understanding that. It takes a while for that offering to take hold.”

But Tomasso views the growing battle over breakfast and brunch dollars as good for business.

“If the awareness of breakfast and other concepts coming into it gets more people thinking about [the morning daypart] and going out for breakfast, that will also help us,” he says.

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Our Secret is Out

We never meant to keep it a secret. Truth be told, we’ve communicated it in not-so-subtle ways for many years. Perhaps we should have tooted our horn more or made a ruckus. But we had faith and knew you would see it too. The situation spoke for itself.

And now we’ve been proven correct.

It began with this year’s edition of the National Restaurant Association’s annual “What’s Hot” survey. Once again the results showed that American Culinary Federation chefs feel ethnic-influenced breakfast are “Hot.” That meant that eggs and their traditional home turf continue to be recognized as something alive and vibrant. Yes!

Then the brand and product consultancy Sterling-Rice Group (SRG) issued its annual “Cutting Edge Dining Trends” for 2014, naming one of its ten trends “The Year of the Yolk.” Although whole eggs remain in growth mode, in SRG’s view the yolk itself will be making news this year. The group’s belief is that the “creamy, decadent, golden globe will reign in 2014,” providing a richness to foods that might have been thought to be the sole jurisdiction of cheeses and creams.

Examples of operators chosen by SRG to show those currently using yolks in creative ways are fine dining operations, which are traditionally where trends incubate before moving on to other segments’ menus. Included among them are Blackbird (Chicago) and its Heirloom Tomato Salad with Cured Egg Yolk, and Blue Hill (NYC) with an Egg Yolk Carbonara in celery root and bacon.

To be sure, cured egg yolks are showing up on more and more menus, and the growing interest in Korean cuisine in which yolks are an integral part will also increase their visibility. We’re looking forward to seeing what else creative chefs do to prove the Sterling-Rice group right.

Then, in January, came this pronouncement from Restaurant.com: The #1 trend in 2014 for American eateries would be eggs. And not just in the morning.

“Overall, 2014 really will be the year of the egg,” stated Christopher Krohn, president and CEO of Restaurant.com, the largest restaurant dining deals website.

The organization reviewed thousands of menu items from more than 15,000 operations to prepare its 2014 trend predictions. The item that kept rising to the top? Eggs.

Krohn expects to see “an explosion of egg dishes in 2014.” Although breakfast is a given, he anticipates significantly more eggs on lunch and dinner menus as well. And the dishes won’t be only traditional egg salads or quiche, but also egg-topped salads, burgers, pizza and pastas.

The breakfast-for-dinner trend is expected to continue to grow, as will availability of ethnic egg specialties such as Huevos Rancheros. Eggs have a lot going for them. They appeal as a comfort food, are also extremely versatile and fit into a wide variety of cuisines.

Go to bit.ly/LidG5V to read our first three 2014 Incredible Breakfast Trends on Asian influenced breakfasts, the evolution of Latin-inspired breakfast cuisine, and the success of breakfast-focused food trucks.